In the industry of today, a mass production in assembly lines and manufacturing plants relies on robotics and automation lines. Robot arms that are equipped with end-effectors are key components to carry out myriad number of critical automation tasks such as material handling, paint operations, assembling, etc. A typical robot comprises one or more arms, each arm being in turn provided with an end effector. An end effector is a structure on which one or more grippers are provided at specific locations, for gripping and manipulating the respective part.
Typically, each robotic end-effector of the prior art is designed, built and optimized to carry out specific actions on a specific part. This makes them very inflexible in terms of variations of objects and tasks. Current automatic solutions to enhance the flexibility of robots involve either the adding of active elements to end-effectors in order to adapt them to different parts geometries, or simply providing additional end-effectors in proximity of the robot that can be replaced via a robot-interface plate. These solutions require, however, more factory space, and thus they are very costly. The design, build and testing phases of a typical end-effector consume considerable amounts of engineering times, and add additional costs to the final products.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a method for designing an end effector which is common for handling plurality of parts, each having its own geometry.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide such an end effector design which is more efficient and reliable compared to existing design methods.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide an end effector design which enables a significant saving production time and space.
It is still another object of the present invention to enable a significant reduction in the costs of various final products.
Other objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent as the description proceeds.